Many benefits have already been stated so I will just share my experience. With my DS, born in a hospital it was maybe 10 minuutes or less. He had a nuchal cord and was a bit blue. Hospital staff wanted to clamp, cut and take him. I threw a fit. Instead he had some supplemental oxygen given to him while he lay on my chest. After that, he was perfectly fine and he was able to get more of his blood volume, plus oxygen from the placenta which hadn't been delivered yet.
dd was born at home, cord continued pulsing a good 20 minutes or so after it was delivered.my midwife wrapped the placenta up in a chux pad and put it next to me while I nursed DD, then the cord was finally clamped and cut. DD had no jaundice. DS had quite a bit of jaundice.

In order to really get the benefits of delayed cord clamping, you need the baby to be held BELOW the level of the introitus. So, provider delivers the baby. The baby goes on provider's lap. The baby stays on providers lap for 3-5 minutes or until the cord stops pulsating (it only takes minutes for it to stop- like less than 5 most of the time). This allows the most blood to go to baby. Then the cord is clamped and cut and only then is the baby put on mom's chest.

That said, I've only done that 1 time. Most of the time, I've put the baby on mom's chest (even though this is NOT the best way to do delayed clamping as it delivers LESS blood). We wait 3-5 minutes then we clamp and cut. The benefits of delayed cord clamping are more RBC's. It doesn't continue to deliver oxygen for 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes after the birth. At this time, the placenta has already detached and is probably sitting at the introitus ready to be delivered. They have not found any differences in oxygen saturations in babies who had delayed clamping and babies who have had immediate clamping, so continued oxygen is NOT a benefit of delayed clamping. Nor have they found statistically significant differences in blood gases, so again, continued oxygen is NOT a benefit of delayed clamping. It's merely about the increased blood volume, and the reason you might want the increased blood volume is because of the increased RBC's. I would look at the academicobgyn.com article that was posted just to learn about the possible benefits. They are small, not dramatic. But it does seem more physiologic, if you value that sort of thing.

I really want a home water birth. I'm trying to figure out how to do that and still do delayed cord clamping which I think is important. I guess the obvious answer would be to stand or kneel in the water and have someone else hold the baby on the surface of the water. I agree it's only really effective if the baby is lower than the placenta.

Sent from iPhone which is out to get me for some reason that is unbeknownst to me. ISO YN Munki Sushi, AhMay sets, Small BG AIOs in twilight, grasshopper, ribbit, clementine

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Mama to 2 big girls, aunt to 3 great kids, nanny to an awesome baby boy and his 2 crazy sisters!

I delayed it with my last 2 because I wanted them to receive "nature's first stem cell transplant" and I plan to delay clamping with this baby about 5 minutes, only more if it's still pulsing, but I've found that after just a few minutes the cord is limp and white and ready to be cut.

I really want a home water birth. I'm trying to figure out how to do that and still do delayed cord clamping which I think is important. I guess the obvious answer would be to stand or kneel in the water and have someone else hold the baby on the surface of the water. I agree it's only really effective if the baby is lower than the placenta.

From what I've read it does not have to be below the placenta as it will continue to flow so long as it's level with the placenta (eg. baby on mom's stomach).

Baby does NOT have to be below the placenta. That unfortunately is a common myth especially among obgyns. Baby has to stay within a couple of inches of the placenta, meaning you can't lift her/him like 3 feet high. But mom's chest is perfectly fine in order to receive the blood from the placenta.

We didn't clamp DD's cord until 40 minutes after birth. Her cord pulsated for a while, the placenta came by itself about 10 minutes after birth. We just left it cause we were busy nursing and saying hi. No jaundice. I wanted the same for DS's birth but hospitals unfortunately adhere to medieval standards believing in some crazy myths... So his cord was clamped within 1-2 minutes and the placenta followed suit 2 minutes after birth. He was jaundiced.

It is very important to CLEARLY and REPEATEDLY communicate to not clamp the cord if you want that. A freestanding birthing center or homebirth CNM will know to wait and not give you any grief, most hospitals and obgyns have to be told over and over to get this done, sadly. It is standard in some EU countries btw to not clamp until no more pulsation, whilst baby is on mom's chest.

We delayed clamping with our youngest for all the reasons already listed. I don't remember an exact time. I know it was long enough for the cord to stop pulsating, but I guess it couldn't have been more than a few minutes altogether. I wish I'd known to do that with my first two babies.

I can't say whether or not it's had any direct impact on his health (or whether it was outweighed by other factors), but he's 3 now and has never been on antibiotics. In fact, now that I think about it I realize that he's never been ill enough to warrant a single sick visit. No small feat considering that he has two first-degree relatives with hereditary immune deficiencies.

I really want a home water birth. I'm trying to figure out how to do that and still do delayed cord clamping which I think is important. I guess the obvious answer would be to stand or kneel in the water and have someone else hold the baby on the surface of the water. I agree it's only really effective if the baby is lower than the placenta.

Sent from iPhone which is out to get me for some reason that is unbeknownst to me. ISO YN Munki Sushi, AhMay sets, Small BG AIOs in twilight, grasshopper, ribbit, clementine

My daughter was a home water birthed baby and I just put a plastic bowl on the top of the water and put the placenta in it to float around in while I held baby down in the water with me. Worked great!

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Jena. Mama to my December girls E 6yo F 4yo C 13mo

1 little Angel waits for me until the day we meet again, Sterling 10/23/11